


Never Quite Normal

by kinnie_hyun



Series: zinger that kinda follows a timeline but not really [1]
Category: Stripes (1981)
Genre: College, Drinking, No Smut, One Shot, Pre-Canon, russell hates john but john doesnt hate him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29810559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinnie_hyun/pseuds/kinnie_hyun
Summary: John and Russell's friendship has always been never quite normal. But how did it start?
Relationships: John Winger / Russell Ziskey
Series: zinger that kinda follows a timeline but not really [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2204136
Kudos: 2





	Never Quite Normal

**Author's Note:**

> HI!! THIS IS LAZY, AND NO ONE IS IN THE STRIPES FANDOM BUT LIKE....I JUST HAD TO!! john and russell are so adorable and i wanted to write the origin story!!

John Winger and Russell Ziskey's friendship had always been never quite normal.

They had met in college, sometime in the 60s. Winger was in a bar every night, always yelling drunkenly at some poor, minimum-wage bartender—and Ziskey was the idiot beside him, apologizing profusely to the target of his anger.

But before that, Russell had no time for men like John Winger in his life. He had come from a fairly well-known family, and John had come from…wherever he came from. He had no need or want to be associated with someone like him.

That is until…

Russell slammed his fist against his dorm door. "God dammit-!" He ripped his scarf off from his own neck and threw it onto the chair beside him.

He stomped to the bathroom, standing in front of the mirror. He removed his glasses from his face, and he watched as tears formed at the bottom of his eyes.

Profusely, he wiped the tears from his eyes, before leaving the bathroom, and crashing onto his bed.

He lay there, deep in thought, wondering where he had gone wrong. He was too distraught to have his thoughts straight, and before he could do anything, he soon felt a wave of exhaustion hit him. Closing his eyes, he let sleep overtake him.

However, his sleep would not last long. "You're a real piece of work, O'Landy!", a man shouted, waking up Russell. 'Just what I need today.' he thought.

Russell looked towards the door, and saw his idiotic roomate, John Winger, barging into the dorm. John slammed the door, then walked towards his own bed, barely taking any notice to Russell, who was giving him a tired—yet still piercing—death stare.

Setting down his things, John turned around to the man giving him murder eyes. His face turned to mock compassion, as he said, "I'm sorry, princess, did I disturb your slumber?"

"Go to hell, Winger, I don't need this right now." Russell sat up on his bed, watching as John sat on his.

Russell never liked John. He always came into the dorm at abysmal hours, either intoxicated and singing, or with some random chick. The things he's heard.

Russell felt like he deserved it though. He was naive enough to believe that if he let the college randomly assign him a roommate, he would get a new best friend, or a hot girl. But no, instead he gets stuck with this jackass.

Before responding, John looked at Russell's eyes. "You been crying or something?" Russell immediately gets defensive, shouting, "No! Get off my case!"

"Yeah, yeah, tell me what happened." John retorted. Russell stared at him, before saying, "Oh, nothing, you can go ask my NOW-EX, girlfriend! I'm sure she'll tell you all about how her fucking the guy down the hall was 'nothing'!" He said, the expression of someone who just had his heart ripped out written all over his face.

"Hm." John looked at his roommate, who now had tears rolling down his cheeks. Winger usually never cared to get into people's personal business, and Russell did hate him, but he felt he just needed to help the poor guy.

"Come with me. We're going to a bar." Russell blinked at John. "And what makes you think I'll go anywhere with you?"

"Well first off, you look terrible, so you're basically already dressed for a bar," Russell looked at him begrudgingly. "and, I'm sure you'll meet some easy chick to have rebound sex with."

Russell weighed his options. Sit here, and wallow over his shattered relationship, or go to a bar with his roommate and find someone new.

"Fine," He said, picking up his glasses from the bedside table, which was really just a box flipped upside down from when he was moving in. "Let's go."

Arriving at the bar, Russell immediately felt outside of his comfort zone. John had abandoned him to go to the dance floor and grind on a random stranger.

Walking up to the bar, he had to push his way through a dozen sweaty patrons. "Scuse me, can I just get a beer or something?" The bartender nodded.

"No no no, barkeep, get him something stronger, please? I'd also like whatever you give him." A voice said to the bartender. Russell turned, and saw John back from the dance floor.

"What are you doing?" Russell asked. "Helping you." With that response, the bartender got them both shots.

John smirked and handed a shot to Russell. He took it hesitantly, then downed it.

Hours later, John and Russell are sat at the bar.

"-and I can't even believe she would do that to me, John, I loved her! But she just turned out to be a massive bitch, like what the hell????" Russell slurred drunkenly, looking up at John, who was patting his back.

"Yeah, I know what ya mean pal." John hadn't really drunk a whole lot, while Russell seemed to be on his fifth round.

"Alright, I think we should head back now, Russell, you seem a little…" John was then cut off by Russell yelling at him. "What, John!? I seem a little what?"

"Nothing. Let's just go." John expected for Russell to hold his liquor maybe, though he guesses he should've stopped him somewhere around round 3.

Standing up from his chair, he watched as Russell attempted to do the same, but he quickly almost fell to the floor.

John picked him up, and let Russell hang onto him. "C'mon, up we go." He said to Russell, who struggled to even keep his glasses on.

Arriving at the dorm, Russell was still clinging to John for support. "You're very strong John…You know that…?" Russell said, he looked like he was starting to enjoy John's company. "Uh-huh, let's just get you to bed before you start throwing up."

Placing Russell onto his mattress, he watched as his roommate attempted to place his glasses on the box/nightstand, but instead dropped them onto the floor.

"John, I know at the beginning of today I hated you, but you're great, you're wonderful, taking me to that bar was a good idea, I met so many girls and stuff!"

"And none of them you managed to sleep with. In fact they all kinda waltzed away from you when you started to talk to them, it was really quite sad for yo-"

As he was talking, Russell grabbed the collar of John's shirt and kissed him. John pulled away pretty quickly, and was a bit dazed. "Sleep with me, John."

John wiped his mouth before chuckling. "While I do swing that way, occasionally, I don't think I should. You should just get your sleep." John wasn't totally weirded out by what just happened, after all, Russell did drink a lot.

"What? Why? Well- I- I mean I guess you're right. I'm sorry, I think it's just because of my girlfriend and the drinking, oh god why did I drink so much?" Russell put his head in his hands and began to cry quietly.

John looked at his roommate, and just said, "There, there-?" while patting him on the head. He wondered how Russell went from horny to sad so quickly, but he didn't really question it.

"I am gonna- going to sleep, I'm dumb and I'm sorry." John laughed, before saying, "Yeah, you...you do that."

John began to walk to his bed, when he turned back to look at Russell. "G'night." Russell murmured something that vaguely sounded like 'goodnight' back. Then, John retired to his bed.

Waking up, he looked out of the window, and saw that it was the afternoon. Russell put on his glasses, which were on the floor for some reason. He had a massive headache, and he really had no idea how either of those got there.

"Well, Good afternoon." Russell looked towards John, who was sitting on a chair, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

"What's with the look, Winger? I didn't do anyth…" Russell thought about it for a second. Oh no. Oh nonononono-

"Did I-? Di-Did we-?"

"To answer your first question, yes you did kiss me. To answer your second, no, we didn't do it."

"Oh." Russell felt a wave of relief wash over him, before he realized. He shot out of bed, and yelled, "I kissed you!?"

"You did. You grabbed my collar and stuff, my neck still hurts, y'know-" John said, smirking. Walking towards the chair John was sitting at, Russell began apologizing. "Ah- god I'm so sorry, John, I didn't know what I was doing, I just, I," Winger interrupted him.

"Don't worry, we all have our moments. Plus it didn't feel so bad either." John said, to Russell's surprise. "Re-really?"

"Mhm. And if you're interested, I would love to do it some other time." Russell processed this. He stood there silently, questioning John's audacity.

"But no, I get it. You think I'm some weirdo from the backend of god knows where, and you're you. So if you wanna write me off, never see me again, I suppose I wouldn't m-"

Russell smashed his lips against John's, savoring the way they tasted. 'Like cheap liquor,' he thought, before pulling away, looking into John's eyes.

John was still smiling, and also looking at Russell.

Russell stood up again.

"That oughta shut you up."

Even in a relationship, John and Russell were never quite normal.

But who likes normal?


End file.
